After the stigma, the pain for their families, and all these years of being labeled rapists, these five young men can begin to put the terrible ordeal in the past, an ordeal that tagged them and scarred them for life.

As New York City continues to deny the Central Park Five compensation for six to 13 years each served in prison, denial of any wrongdoing and the racist injustice of the criminal justice system within this case is actually a continued disservice to all black and Latino men.

The actual assailant, who confessed years later and whose DNA confirmed his story, was never in the sights of the police and prosecutors. Sadly, people remember the hysteria of the conviction campaign and often don't even realize that the lynch-mob mentality got the wrong guys.